Wellbeing News

Meet the Team 

My name is Fosia Mohamud. I Joined the WHSC team at the end of term three in 2021 as the Mental Health Practitioner (MHP). I am a qualified Social Worker and have worked in various settings over the last 10 years in the Health and Public Service Sectors. I’m now excited to be working at WHSC in a role that focuses on mental health in the school setting, where early intervention can be facilitated.

It has been a pleasure getting to know the WHSC community and working alongside the wellbeing team and whole school in the promotion of mental health awareness. 

My name is Celine Tsang. I joined the WHSC Wellbeing team at the start of Term 3 in 2022 as a School Counsellor. I have a Masters in Counselling with Victoria University, and am a registered counsellor with the Australian Counsellor Association. I have worked with several schools and assisted students with their mental health.  

I believe in autonomy, honesty, and non-judgment. Although the road can be winding and rocky, sometimes with some strength and resilience, we can imagine what we can achieve! My favourite color is sky-blue, I love spicy food, I love dogs, and I speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese. I can be a bit shy but I am no monster, come say hi. 

What's Happening in Wellbeing?

October 2022

October is Mental Health awareness month. The wellbeing team will be exploring ways to continue to promote Mental Health awareness as a whole school approach.

Recent Events:

                             Guest Speaker: 

To continue with our celebrations of Reconciliation and NAIDOC week from term 2, we hosted a guest speaker- Mark Lumley who is the Koorie Engagement Support Officer (KESO) for our region. Mark visited WHSC on Thursday 25th August 2022 to engage students across Year’s 7-10 in discussions regarding Reconciliation and NAIDOC. 

We received positive feedback from students. Below are some student reflections:

N.G-Yr. 7 student: “The Mark Lumley visit was a spectacular experience and he taught us all types of things including borders, tribes, where he is from and way more about his amazing culture”.

Z.T-Yr. 8 student: “I liked how he deeply explained the history of the first fleet came to Australia and how Aboriginals were not even classed as people because of their culture. He explained everything very thoroughly and really made us appreciate how hard his community had worked to become appreciated in life even though it is a basic human right. He explained why they have such a deep connection to the culture and it was honestly really inspiring to hear about their love and appreciation to the land and the culture of the earth and how we should be grateful to have the privileges that we have because of the land we walk on every day”.

M.K-Yr. 9 student: “I found it interesting about how Aboriginals go by different names, some considered as offensive and others not offensive. For example, the word Aborigine is a very offensive term and should not be used at all. Aboriginals find that when they're call Indigenous, they think of plants, however, they're fine with being called that. Aboriginals overall would rather be called Aboriginals or called by their nation/country name e.g. Wurundjeri. I also found out that the Aboriginals refer to Captain Cook as Lieutenant Cook because he wasn't a captain when Australia was found”.

R U OK? Day at WHSC- Thursday 8th of September:

R U OK? Day is our national day of action dedicated to reminding everyone that every day is the day to ask, “are you OK?” and support those struggling with life's ups and downs.

We celebrated R U OK? Day by hosting Headspace at the school during lunch time. We also had Monash Resource Officers (Police) join us. Headspace spoke about the importance of looking after our mental health and looking out for one another. 

It was a lovely to see students and staff connecting with each other over games. 

Inclusion and Diversity Workshops:

Fosia (MHP), Ms Patterson (Programs for Students with Disabilities Coordinator), Ms Badoche (Diversity Club Facilitator) and Ms Xing (International Students Coordinator) are facilitating inclusion and diversity workshops with students. The purpose of these workshops is to generate conversations about what Inclusion and Diversity means to the students, which will help to inform an Inclusion and Diversity policy for the school. 

The first and second workshops were held on the 5th and 12th of September 2022. There will be two follow up sessions in early term 4. The students have been really receptive to be involved in these workshops in order to have their input on how we as a school can further promote Inclusion and Diversity.  

Looking after your mental health and staying safe over the holidays

As term three comes to an end and we enter into the holidays, we want to give you some resources to take with you to ensure you are taking care of yourselves and each other. Remembering that wellbeing encompasses many different elements and we need to tend to each element in order for our tree to thrive.

Image from: https://headspace.org.au/yarn-safe/mental-health-and-wellbeing/

The Department of Education have provided a wonderful resource for parents and carers regarding wellbeing support for students during the school holidays, which can be found here. It covers:

• Actions that support positive mental health
• Signs a child or young person may need mental health support
• Mental health support resources
• Family violence support and resources
• Self‑harm and suicide prevention resources

Risk Taking and young people

As our brains are developing during adolescence, there can be a tendency to take risks. This may be due to hyperrational thinking, where a young person may be inclined to put more emphasis on the rewards of an activity than the risks. This is despite having a good understanding of the risks! Their brains are going through a massive "boom and prune" growth phase. They are more or less hard wired to take risks, explore their boundaries and play whatever cards they are holding.

Dan Siegel, clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, talks about this further in this youtube clip.

To support your young person to take healthier risks, there are some mindfulness activities that can be helpful to support the development of their brains:

• Close your eyes and ask yourself what you are sensing right now in your body, what images you can see in your, and what emotions are coming up.
• Rainbow grounding activity: Find a picture of a rainbow and locate an object in the room for each of the different colours.
• Time in: Take a minute or two at the end of each day to focus your attention inwardly and on your what has happened during the day.
• Mindfulness/Breathing activity: Smiling mind app has some great resources to help regulate our minds and bodies. https://www.smilingmind.com.au/

If you have any questions about Mental Health resources or would like any particular Mental Health theme to be covered in the wellbeing newsletter; please feel free to get in touch with Fosia-our Mental Health Practitioner- fmo@whsc.vic.edu.au

We hope you all have a lovey and safe term break and we look forward to reconnecting with students in term 4.